1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally in the field of hardware testing systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to computerized hardware testing systems.
2. Background Art
The development of modern hardware, such as cellular phone hardware or other portable communication hardware, is presently occurring at a rapid pace, driven in part by intense consumer demand. Bringing modern hardware to market is thus a difficult and time-sensitive enterprise. Unfortunately, the hardware testing and diagnostic steps that must be performed on such modern hardware are complex and time-consuming. For example, hardware testing and diagnostic steps such as hardware verification, debugging, and testing of peripheral chipsets are often delayed for weeks until stable software is available to run on the modern hardware.
The development of modern hardware includes, for example, adding peripheral chipsets to cellular phones for providing additional functionalities, such as, for example, Bluetooth, GPS, FM radio, or WLAN. All these added functionalities on the circuit board of the cellular phone need to be tested as soon as a first version of the cellular phone is ready, so that hardware issues can be resolved before another layout version of the circuit board is prepared, which can take, in the modern practice, two or three weeks. However, the availability of stable software, which can run on the circuit board to activate the added functionalities of the various peripheral chipsets, is often a bottleneck for timely testing of the circuit board. To expedite the hardware testing and diagnosis of modern hardware, various approaches, such as serial MMI (“Man Machine Interface”) testing and HCI (“Host Controller Interface”) testing, have been utilized. Unfortunately, neither MMI nor HCI testing eliminate the need to have stable software for all the modern hardware features and peripheral chipsets.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the drawbacks and deficiencies in the art by offering an improved hardware test and diagnosis system and method.